Questions about OFFstep and LabelGrid
Who owns OFFstep, and who owns LabelGrid?
OFFstep is ONErpm’s DIY brand. Every content-bearing page in our capture of offstep.com carries the footer “© Copyright 2026 ONErpm. All Rights Reserved.”, and the OFFstep Terms of Use name the contracting party as “Verge Records International Inc., its licensees, affiliates, subsidiaries, and assignees”, with their privacy policy naming the same company. The two brands sell to different buyers, which is the point of their own help-centre answer routing a label to ONErpm. LabelGrid customers contract with LABEL GRID, LLC, formed in 2017 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. LabelGrid is independently owned, with no major-label and no DSP parent.
How much does OFFstep cost?
Their pricing FAQ states: “OFFstep offers 3 plans from $18 (Basic), $48 (Intermediate), and $96 (Advanced) per year.” Each plan card binds its price to an artist count: Basic is $18 a year for “1 artist per account”, Intermediate $48 for “Up to 2 artists per account”, and Advanced $96 and “Starts at 4 artists per account”, with a larger Advanced package supporting up to 120 artists on one account at a price their pricing page does not state. Their homepage expresses the entry price monthly, “as low as $1.50/month”, which is the $18-a-year Basic plan rather than a monthly plan of its own; no monthly plan appears on their pricing page. LabelGrid publishes every distribution plan and API tier on the pricing page, including the Custom Distribution and Custom API starting prices.
What percentage do you keep with OFFstep, and with LabelGrid?
Their help centre answers it in one sentence: “When you release your content through OFFstep, you keep 100% of your revenue from streaming and downloads and 80% of your revenue from YouTube, Meta, and TikTok.” Both halves belong together. On LabelGrid a customer keeps 85% of standard-DSP royalties on the entry plans and 90% on Pro; on Custom Distribution and every API tier a customer keeps 95% of standard-DSP royalties earned through LabelGrid’s own deals and 100% of what they earn on their own DSP deals or their own Merlin membership through SOBO, which is available on Custom Distribution and the API tiers only. Content ID and UGC revenue carries a 20% fee on revenue earned through LabelGrid's deals, so the customer keeps 80% there, the same rate OFFstep publishes. On self-serve streaming retention the customer keeps more at OFFstep.
Does the OFFstep subscription cover every tool?
Their help centre answers “Nope! You can use all the tools available on your plan and OFFstep won’t charge you any additional annual fees!”, and the scope sits inside that sentence: the tools available on your plan. Their own pages tier some of them. Ringtones and Neighboring Rights delivery need the top tier, in their wording “to be able to select the Ringtones or Neighboring Rights platforms, you must subscribe to the Advanced plan”, and Custom Reports is “Available on our Advanced Plan.” Their Terms make the fee a condition of access, “you will be required to purchase a recurring annual subscription fee”, covering “Content distribution, maintenance, reporting, and artist support services expenses incurred by OFFstep on your behalf.” Their mastering tool, their Audience Growth Suite and the Groover route are marketed as separate products, and no price for them appears on the pages we captured.
Can a label manage several artists on one OFFstep account?
Their ladder answers with an artist count on one account: Advanced “Starts at 4 artists per account” at $96 a year, and a larger Advanced package supports up to 120 artists on one account. Asked “Can I create a sub-account to manage the albums in my account?”, their help centre answers: “No. If you are a label and need this tool, please consider submitting a request to join ONErpm.” So a label that needs sub-accounts is asked to apply to a sister brand. A LabelGrid account holds labels instead, 1 on Solo, 3 on Basic, 5 on Pro and 50 on Custom Distribution, each with its own defaults, distribution settings and statement lines; on the API tiers the meter counts registered labels at larger sizes: 5 on Starter API, 25 on Growth API, 100 on Scale API and unlimited on Custom API, served to your customers through the interface you build on the API. Artists on one account and labels on one account are two different meters, so 120 of theirs is not the same measurement as 50 of ours.
Does OFFstep give refunds, and does LabelGrid?
OFFstep does, on published conditions: “Yes, OFFstep offers subscription refunds under specific conditions.” A refund requires that “The request is made within 14 days of the plan activation date. The same applies to renewals and upgrades.”, that “The subscription has not been used;” and that “The account and content comply with our Terms of Use, contractual terms, policies, and guidelines.” Their article adds “Payment processing fees (Stripe fees) are non-refundable.” LabelGrid publishes no refund route. On standard plans a customer may end the plan at any time in writing, and fees already paid for the term are not refunded. This is one of the places where their published terms are better than ours.
What happens to your music if you stop paying?
Both companies take the catalogue down, and the difference is timing. The OFFstep help centre states: “Consequently, all of your albums will be removed from DSPs on the date your current plan ends.” If a LabelGrid subscription lapses or goes unpaid for more than 60 days, LabelGrid may remove or withdraw the content and may suspend or terminate the account, on any plan. On cancelling mid-term, their own article warns that “cancellation is immediate and cannot be reversed” and that “You will lose access to all features included in your current plan;”, while “You will still be able to receive royalty shares and withdraw your earnings.” LabelGrid is the same on the forfeited half: standard plans end at any time in writing and fees already paid for the term are not refunded. A takedown a customer asks for is a separate mechanism on our side, self-serve from the Outlets tab, with full removal across platforms typically taking two to three weeks.
Is there a limit on how much you can upload?
Not on OFFstep. Asked “Is there a limit to how many albums I can upload on my account?”, their help centre answers “No. You can upload as many albums as you want.”, and their platform-features page adds “No matter how many songs you want to distribute, you only pay once annually.” They also document an Album Edit tool for metadata and artwork on live releases, a takedown button, and backups of the original files. LabelGrid meters the other way: self-serve plans are sized by a track limit and a label limit, Solo and Basic move up a tier at their limits, Pro carries a $0.15 per-track yearly overage, and Custom Distribution starts at 2,000 tracks by default with a $0.25 per-track yearly overage up to 10,000 tracks and a cap raised in the deal. On catalogue size, theirs is the simpler answer.
Is release review included, and how long does it take?
Both companies review releases before delivery, and one of them publishes a time. The OFFstep homepage states: “Our AI-powered (supervised by humans) approval tools speed up store deliveries. In most cases, music is approved and delivered within 48 hours.” The “In most cases” is theirs and it is doing real work. On LabelGrid every release on a distribution plan is manually reviewed before delivery, a person checking the audio, the metadata and the rights, at no extra cost, unless the account distributes only through its own direct deals, and we publish no turnaround figure, so we cannot claim to beat theirs. API and third-party distribution also carry onboarding screening and KYC or KYB before access.
How do the analytics and fan-marketing tools compare?
The OFFstep pages describe daily and monthly performance and revenue data, a store comparison, a Playlist Placement Tracker that “shows you your playlists, but also your skip rate as well as the playlist owner and the number of followers”, a Content ID Tracker and downloadable monthly statements, plus pre-saves, smart links, a promo-art generator and their Amplifier campaign builder. LabelGrid carries streaming analytics on every plan and every account: five dashboard views, filtered by store, period or scope, and the same analytics on the public API for accounts on an API tier. On the fan-marketing side every release gets a hosted landing page and smart link with an lbl.gr short URL, a Spotify pre-save before release day, optional fan email capture, and direct posting from the release row to Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram. Their Audience Growth Suite sells paid advertising and playlist-promotion campaigns as a separate product, and no price for it appears on the pages we captured.